Never Alone
by XxTwisted-Miss-MayhemxX
Summary: This is a story my friend Sherry and I are writing. Each chapter is done by one of us. I started off the first, she the second, and so on. Its a love/friendship story btwn SaiXOC and KibaXOC. Rated T for language and fighting scenes. Hope you guys like!
1. Chapter 1

I sighed, leaning back on my arms. I sat at the far end of the training grounds, watching Naruto bounce around, trying to impress Nariko, whom he had a bit of a crush on.

As I watched them, I noted the quiet boy who sat beside me. He was drawing in his book again. Sakura had run off when I wasn't looking, probably to get away from Naruto. I still don't understand how Nariko could take his yelling in her ear all the time. I never once saw the shy girl annoyed with him, no matter how much he irked the rest of us. Or, maybe she was just really good at hiding it.

Naruto tripped over his own two feet and fell to the ground, face first. I saw Nariko giggle quietly and help him stand again. I smiling, proud of how far she'd come from the scared little girl she used to be when we found her. I frowned at the thought.

"Kei, why are you frowning?" I looked over to my quiet companion, noting that he closed his book before I could see its contents. I was just as curious now as I always had been, but I pushed it back to answer his question.

"I'm thinking about when we found Nariko…" He patted my arm, sending pleasing chills up my arm. I ignored it. "How those people could be so mean to such a sweet girl…it's beyond me! She is so kind. And those people scared her so badly! It's unforgivable!"

Sai nodded, "Yes. It was rather unfortunate. But they can't hurt her anymore. She is safe." I sighed, feeling the mother in me react while I watched Naruto talk endlessly about his journey with Jiraiya.

"I know. I just…I don't want her to go through anything like that again, Sai. People in this world…they aren't all nice or generous. Some are just plain evil. She's opened up so much. I don't know what I would do if something happened to make her go back into her shell."

"That won't happen." I turned to look at him again, seeing the seriousness in his eyes. "She has you, Kei. She has all of us that went on that mission. None of us will let that happen."

I smiled at him, feeling my heart skip a beat. I knew he was trying to cheer me up. It meant that he cared for me a bit. Maybe not the way I wanted him to, but I was glad that he did.

"Yeah…you're right. Thanks, Sai! You're a great friend!" The emotion in his eyes died down and he looked away from me, humming to let me know he heard me.

I began to think about it a bit. Remembering the one mission that saved not only Nariko's life, but my own.

~"Why can't we do some cool mission like taking down a huge mafia boss or something?! I don't want to go on some boring mission again, Grandma!" I sighed, rubbing my temples as Naruto fumed in front of us all.

Lady Tsunade had called for my brother, Kiba, and I to come to her office. Which is where we learned of the mission that Team Kakashi was embarking on and we were to accompany them because of our great tracking abilities.

Naruto was, at this moment, angry because he did not want to go on a "boring" mission, as he deemed it. It is rumored that a village, just on the outskirts of the Lightning Country, may be harboring a dangerous weapon. So, our mission was to try and find the weapon…and to destroy it.

"Naruto…I SWEAR. If you don't shut up and do as you're told, I'll make sure that Teuichi bans you from Ichiraku for a month!" Naruto's face fell and I swear it turned blue in his fear. He shut up real quick.

"That's what I thought. Now, you are going to be given the night to rest up and gather supplies. I want you to leave first thing tomorrow. Am I clear?" We all nodded and walked from the building.

"Hey, Kei! Want to come shopping with me to get more weapons before tomorrow?" I turned to Sakura, biting my cheek in thought. I wasn't a fan of Sakura, but I did need some new weapons myself, so I agreed.

"Great. Anyone else want to come along?" She asked the three boys. The Senseis' had already left. Naruto and their other teammate, whose name I wasn't so keen on knowing, nodded.

"I'm good. Akamaru and me are gonna go train for a while. I'll see you guys later. Let Mom know where I am okay, Maki?" I nodded to my younger brother and we set off to the weapons shop.

A small bell rang as we opened the door, signaling our arrival. All kinds of weapon adorned the walls of the medium-sized shop, all gleaming in un-used glory.

I got the usual set of kunai, shuriken, flexible wire, and senbon needles that I usually had on me, but something shined beside me, just in my peripheral vision.

I stared in awe at the small swords that hung on the wall. The sheaths, a metallic blue with Sakura petals, glittered in the store light. The swords crossed each other, making an X shape on the wall.

"Oh my goodness…they're gorgeous!" The storeowner walked by me, smiling kindly, wrinkles forming on the corners of her mouth.

"Yes. These are very rare, as well. Only five sets were made. The craftsman, Inouichi Shouni, died before he could make anymore. Many have tried to copy his style and produce replicas, but that is just what they were. Replicas. No one has been able to make another weapon like Inouichi could. The steel blade could cut the finest hair, but could withstand almost the heaviest impact. They are one of a kind."

"Just like me! I have to have them! Will this much be okay?" I showed her my money, an excited gleam in my black eyes. The older lady frowned, counting the money in my palm.

"I'm sorry, dear, but this is not enough. If I sold them for this much, I would be ripping myself off." I frowned sadly, looking down to the ground. I knew I couldn't ask Mom for money. She'd just tell me to go make some myself. And Kiba and Hana needed their money for their own things.

"Oh…really? Man!" I pocketed the money and picked up the weapons that I had previously discarded. I really wanted those swords, but since I couldn't afford them until after our mission, I just bought the other things and left the store with everyone.

The quiet boy hung back, Naruto taking notice to it. "Hey, what cha doin', Sai? Did you forget something?" The boy smiled at his friend, but I could easily see the falseness in it. Why would he fake a smile like that?

"Yes. I forgot to get something for the mission tomorrow. I will see you all later. I have some things that I must do." With that, he turned back into the shop.

I ignored him, my mind drifting to the boy he'd replaced. No, Sasuke and I hadn't been fairly close. Not since the massacre on his family. Before then, we'd been best friends. Even after the massacre, we had an understanding with each other.

Though I was devastated that he wasn't talking to me anymore, I understood why. He'd suffered a great loss. And that was something that I understood well.

I could feel my eyes glassing over from tears just thinking about my past memories. Not of Sasuke, but of another boy.

"Keimaki? Earth to Keimaki! Are you alive?!" Naruto's voice shook through my ears and I turned a harsh glare to him, rubbing my ear.

"I'm right here, Naruto! You don't have to yell! And how many times have I told you to call me Kei? You know I hate being called by my full name!" Naruto's grin became sheepish.

"Sorry, Kei! But you spaced out there! Sakura even left because she thought you were ignoring her!" I blinked, looking around for the bright pink hair. How had I missed that?

"Uh…oops? Well, if you see her, tell her I'm sorry and that I wasn't trying to ignore her. I've just got a lot on my mind. I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Bye!" I turned to walk towards my house, only to be jumped by a large, dark gray husky.

I laughed as my dog licked my face. It took almost all of my strength to push him off. "Seimaru! There you are! I've been wondering where you've been all day! You missed it! We're going on a mission with Team Kakashi tomorrow. Kiba and Akamaru are coming, too!"

He started to bark back to me, saying that he ran into Kiba and Akamaru on his way to find me and that they told him.

"Oh, really? Well, I just wasted my breath then!" I laughed and Naruto stared at us strangely, muttering something about Inzuka's being weird.

I rolled my eyes and climbed up onto Seimaru's offered back. "Alright, boy. Let's go home! I want to rest up well for tomorrow!" He bounded off, skidding a bit, throwing some dirt up on Naruto. I laughed at the tall blonde sputtered out curses at us as he tried to get the dirt out of his hair.

I sighed, scrubbing my wet hair with a towel as I walked out of the bathroom, almost tripping over Akamaru as he slept in the middle of the hall.

"A-Akamaru! You're too big to sleep in the halls now! What if it'd been really dark and I got hurt because of you laying out in the middle like that?"

He barked his sorry and nuzzled my side. I giggled, petting his head. "Awe, its alright, boy. Just be more careful next time, okay?" He barked happily and bounded down the opposite way to Kiba's room.

I opened the door to my room, the towel slightly blocking my vision as a closed the door behind me and walked to my desk. I heard Seimaru make his way over to me, looking up at me with sad eyes as he saw what I was looking at.

It was a picture of a young boy, about sixteen to be exact. He had medium length, red hair that swept across his brow, deep set blue eyes, and a contagious grin. He was holding a younger girl to him. The familiar curly dark locks and black eyes smiled happily back at my own morose ones.

This was me only a year ago. The boy's name was Riku. We'd been together two years by this time, and neither of us wanted anyone else. We'd been best friends since we were children, but when we were fourteen, we realized that it had blossomed into something more.

We were happy and content. We'd even begun to talk about getting married when we were older. But, one day, my team had gone out on a mission to the Sand Village. I was sick that day, so I couldn't go. Riku didn't want to go. He wanted to take care of me, but I told him to go.

The mission was supposed to be simple. Just deliver a scroll to the Kazekage, so they didn't bother trying to find a replacement for me. I really wish they had, though, I don't know if it would have made a difference.

My team had stumbled across some rogue ninja, whom tried to steal the scroll for ransom. Of course, they weren't happy when the team started to fight back. They'd beaten the ninja, but at a cost. Riku had jumped in front of a fatal blow that was about to impale his brother, our other teammate.

They'd rushed him to the village, but the poisoned blade had done its' damage. Riku had passed before they even got to the gates of the village.

I was broken from my trance when I heard a knock at the door. I took a deep breath, pushing my thoughts to the back of my mind for now. "Come in!"

My mother opened the door, her sharp eyes holding a confused expression. "Kei, this was on the porch. It has your name on it. I had Kuromaru check it out. He says it's fine. Do you have any idea what it could be?"

She handed me an elongated box. There was nothing special about the box, but when I opened the lid, my eyes shined happily. It was the swords from the weapons shop!

I looked up at my mom, while she only shrugged. I set the box down and picked up one of the swords as if it was the most precious thing in the world.

I noticed a folded up paper under the other one and set down the one in my hand to pick it up. When I opened it, my gasped. An intricate picture was drawn on the canvas. It was of me, fighting with the swords.

I flipped the paper over, looking for a name, but there was none. I all but ripped the box a part, trying to find a name, but discovered nothing. My mother had left, closing the door behind her, leaving Seimaru and I to stare in wonder.

"I wonder who bought them…" I picked up the box and sat on my bed. I pulled one out and unsheathed it. The steel shined back at me, almost approvingly.

"Who would spend so much money on me? The only one's who even know about these were Sakura, Naruto, and Sai. But maybe someone else saw me? Ah, who cares! Now I can use these babies on missions!"

Seimaru rolled his eyes me and jumped up on the bed, careful not knock off the blades. "Just put them with your things for tomorrow and let's go to sleep already!"

I pouted, "Fine, fine! You know, I still don't get why you won't speak in front of anyone else but me. I look like a loon talking to myself. Not like I care, but it's different now that you can talk."

I set the blades beside my mission clothes and turned off the light, walking back to my bed. I crawled in and Seimaru shifted up to lay beside me, nuzzling his nose onto my cheek.

"I just don't like talking to anyone else. That's all. Now, get some sleep, Kei. We both need it." I nodded and kissed his nose, cuddling up to him. I fell asleep soon after.

I yawned and stretched, causing my dress to come up slightly. I patted it down and adjusted the swords on my back. I leaned against Seimaru, trying not to fall asleep again.

I was woken from my dozing state by a loud voice. It turned out to be Naruto. "HEY, KEI!" I groaned, glancing at my brother who was fast asleep on Akamaru. How could he sleep though that?!

I sighed, pushing off Seimaru who tensed his muscles to stay standing. He was tired as well. Early mornings were not fun for either of us.

"Good morning, Naruto. Sakura. Sai…" I saw the two other ninja following the blonde. Sakura waved while Sai gave that fake smile again. It was beginning to annoy me.

"Goodness. You look very ugly this morning, Keimaki!" Everyone's jaw dropped, Kiba's included since he'd woken up just in time to hear the insult.

"E-Excuse me?! What did you just call me?" He looked honestly perplexed at my question, like I'd just asked him what Pi equaled.

"Um…ugly? You're very ugly today!" I was about ready to punch that smile right off his face. Even Naruto looked fearful.

"Uh…Sai? Kei isn't the best person to call names. Especially not in the morning…" Kiba stood from the ground and stomped over to Sai, a growling Akamaru following. I was too stupefied to even move. I'd never met some one so rude!

"Who the hell do you think you are, calling my sister ugly?! I outta smack that stupid smile right off your face!" He got up in Sai's face, who still looked as confused as could be.

"Uh…Kei? Something you should know-Sai was taught to have no emotions since he was in ROOT. So, he learns everything from books. He read somewhere that you're supposed to call someone the opposite of what you really think. I've tried to tell him that's not how it works, but…" Sakura trailed off, glancing back at the obvious fight about to erupt.

I felt a blush creep onto my cheeks. "So…so you're telling me that he means to say that I look pretty today?" She giggled and nodded. I felt a bubble of laughter in my throat and let it out.

My brother turned to look at me like I was insane. "Kei? Why are you laughing? He just called you ugly!" My laughter died down to a giggle.

"I'll explain it to you later, Kiba and Sai, thank you. You're very…hideous, too!" I snickered, biting my lip to hold back another fit of laughter.

The pale boy smiled falsely again, to which I frowned. Though, the small blush on his cheeks confused me slightly.

"Yo…" We looked over to see Yamato-sensei walking over to us, his usual bug-eyed look on his face. I shivered. He freaked me out with those eyes! He could be so attractive, too if he'd quit trying to look so intimidating.

Three hours later, we were still waiting on our last member, Kakashi-sensei. Naruto groaned. "Why can't he ever be on time?! This is an important mission!"

I sighed. "We need to get moving! We're wasting daylight! Seimaru! Can you smell him?" Seimaru lazily lifted his nose in the air and took a small whiff of the air.

He looked at me, barking to me that he was on top of the bookstore several blocks down. My eye twitched in annoyance. "I'll be right back. I'm going to teach that perverted dolt a lesson!" I sped off in the direction of the bookstore.

Naruto watched me run, noticing the swords. "Hey! Those are pretty neat! When did Kei get those?" Sakura blinked, getting a good look before I turned around the corner.

"Hey! Those are the ones from the weapons shop yesterday! I thought that she didn't have enough money for them?" Naruto shrugged at her, just as confused. Sai glanced their way before looking back to where I'd disappeared.

I grumbled as I jumped from roof to roof, searching for the silver haired Jounin. "Stupid, perverted, old man! He's making us late!" I finally spotted him. He was laying with his back to me, propped up on his arm. It looked like he was reading one of his raunchy books again!

"You've GOT to be kidding me!" I growled quietly. I quietly jumped onto the building and stood above him. My shadow covering his reading light made him turn to me. He gave me a sheepish look when he saw the apparent anger on my face.

"Oh, Maki! What a coincidence! What are you doing here this fine day?" My eye glowed with my burning anger and I reached down, grabbing his ear and pulling him to his feet. He yelped the whole way.

"A coincidence?! Are you kidding me right now, Kakashi?! We have a mission to go on and you're slacking off, reading those disgusting books!" I finally let go of his ear when he reached his full height.

He pouted a bit behind his mask. "But I just have to know how it ends, Maki! I'll die if I don't!" I groaned, pulling him back towards the gates.

"Carol married John and they have kids together. There. Now you know the ending. So, come on! We've got things to do!" I blushed, angry that I knew that. Despite being a disgusting, old pervert, Jiraiya was very insightful. I wrote in my spare time as well so he wanted an opinion from one author to another about an ending.

Kakashi sighed and pulled away from me to walk himself. We made it to the gates even quicker than I realized and found very annoyed teammates. They all, except Yamato and Sai, glared at the tall Jounin to my right.

"Can we go already?!" Naruto waited for no answer before he turned and stalked out of the gated. I shrugged to everyone else and followed, Seimaru at my heels. Little did we know, things were about to get crazy.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a cloudy and rainy day in the land of Bakekuro. All the villagers seemed to have closed themselves up indoors to stay out of the rain, but one young blonde didn't seem to mind. She seemed to be dancing in the constant flow of the rain as she felt the wet grass underneath her small bare feet.

Nariko knew that it was only on rainy days like this that she would be able to run around outside without having to worry so much about being spotted by the villagers, though she would never dare to try playing too close to the village itself. She would usually just run around in the woods around her tree house that she has called home since she was old enough to walk.

Nariko loved these moments of playing in the rain. She could do just about anything; she could be her and not worry about being judged.

Nariko was at the age of 15 and her birthday was going to be in a few days. She knew that most of the people in the village would do something special on their "birthday" as they called it. They would all join together to laugh and eat sweets or play games and do something called "a birthday wish" when they blew out the candles. Nariko never did anything on her "birthday" because it never seemed like a special day to her, but at that moment she was hoping that it would rain on her birthday. If it rain on her birthday she would be able to actually be able to walk outside and enjoy, but more than anything, she wished it would snow on her birthday.

Nariko smiled to herself and thought how she would prefer that instead. It would never snow in Bakekuro so she never got to see it, but she saw pictures of it in books before and even used some paint she found to paint a picture of snow on one of the walls of her home. She didn't know if she was allowed to have a "birthday wish" but if she could, she would use it for that.

She didn't mind the worn out clothes she would find or make for herself. In fact, she'd never owned a pair of shoes. She was even okay with the fact that her old home was falling apart.

She would just be happy to see some snow just once. Maybe when it snowed it would make things better for everyone, and maybe the villagers might not hate her anymore. Because all Nariko really wanted was to not be hated anymore.

"Yuroichi!" Nariko had called out to her friend, Yuroichi, a small orange cat with bright yellow eyes, who was lying curled up on one of the branches of Nariko's house in a sad attempt to keep out of the rain. "Yuroichi won't you come down, please? We can go fishing for something for dinner!"

She looked hopefully at him to see if he would come spend some time with her. Nariko didn't have any friends, some of the animals that lived in the area seemed to like her, but she always considered Yuroichi her best friend because he was the only one who would always come visit her and spend so much time with her, even if he mostly came for the food she would leave out for him.

Yuroichi had moved his long bushy tail that was resting in front of his face to see Nariko's excited expression which he answered by moving his tail back down so he could go back to sleep. He obviously was not planning at getting wet any more than he had to.

When he had moved his tail once more to look at Nariko's face again, he saw that Nariko had given him that sad almost heartbroken look of hers and couldn't help feeling annoyed. He hated that look even though he knew Nariko didn't know she was doing it. He still hated it because it always made him feel guilty. It didn't help that she would normally change her eyes to look like his.

As Yuroichi began to stretch out his legs to start walking, he had decided that a few minutes wet wouldn't kill him, and besides that, he could get a couple of fish out of the deal.

He jumped onto Nariko's head and let out low sounding meow of approval that let Nariko know he decided to go along with her, as he jumped to another tree with a smiling Nariko right behind him. They both jumped from tree to tree like professional ninjas as they went on their way to the lake they normally do their fishing.

The group was on their second day of travel to the islands of Lightning country. Naruto and the gang had managed to make great timing on their mission and were now just a quick ferry ride away from their destination.

They were all waiting around for their ferry to get there, but the next docking wasn't scheduled to come for another four hours. They had missed the first one for the day because a certain Uzumaki had wanted to take a snack break that lasted two hours long! So now they were just waiting.

"I'm so bored! How much longer is it going to be until the boat gets here?" Naruto had asked for the third time in the past five minutes. No one was in the mood to hear him complain since it was his fault that they weren't on their way already.

"For the last time Naruto! The boat isn't going to be here until 1 o'clock! We missed the 9 o'clock boarding because of you so stop complaining!" Sakura said while landing a swift punch to the back of his head.

"Ow Sakura! Alright, I'm sorry." Naruto said while moving to sit farther away from her and nursing his now growing bump on his head.

"Alright everyone since we still have quite a bit of time before the boat comes back to port, let's use this time wisely. We are all going to split up and try to gather some more information about the island and for the weapon that we need to destroy. We can all meet back here at exactly 12 o'clock. Understood?" Kakashi said as everyone gave him a nod of confirmation and split up.

Nariko had her now dark yellow eyes focused on the fish in the lake. She was studying each fish's pattern of movement while she stood completely still in the middle of the lake. If you missed even the slightest movement, they would escape. When Nariko knew she was ready she began to gather chakra into her hands.

"There!" she said before making a hand sign that made 20 giant spikes of chakra poke out of the water with fish stuck to each one of them. Nariko felt slightly confident as she saw some of the results of all her training. "Alright that's one more spike than last time! I'm really getting better. Aren't I Yuroichi?"

Nariko looked behind her to see said cat staring at the water as well, but from the edge of the lake. In an instant he had swiped his paw into the water and brought a fish onto the bank. Yuroichi would always be the master fisherman.

After the two had gathered up their haul of fish, they started a fire to cook them all since it had stopped raining. Nariko was sitting on the ground close to the fire to stay warm while Yuroichi lay curled up in her lap. All of a sudden the two had heard rustling sounds coming from the bushes around them, but neither Nariko nor Yuroichi had seemed scared. Nariko had looked somewhat expectant of the sound while Yuroichi just seemed annoyed. It was some of the animals that lived in the forest that came from all around. "Who's ready for fish?" Nariko said holding up a cooked fish with her normal smile on.

This was a normal thing for Nariko and Yuroichi. Every once in a while, when Nariko would be out fishing, she would catch and cook enough fish for her and the animals in the woods and the animals would just follow the smell right to them.

Nariko began to pass out fishes to everyone from the large mother bear and her cubs to the owl in the tree, whom Yuroichi felt was always trying to mock him.

As everyone finished their fish they left leaving the duo to finish their own fish by themselves. Nariko, who had finished eating her fish, looked up and began to admire the stars. She never had many chances to look up at the stars like this, and sitting here looking at it now with Yuroichi just felt so nice. It almost made her feel like that night so many years ago had never happened. The night of the accident.

It all came back to her in the look of a dream since she had just come into existence and her conscious mind wasn't fully awake. The six men from her past, the scientists, had come to check on her to make sure everything was going according to schedule, as they planned.

Nariko's pale, unmoving, naked body was lying on the hard, metal table. Her long blond hair lay underneath her and reached just past her hips. Her dark gray eyes stared blankly past the men experimenting on her to the blinding light on the ceiling.

She never knew what they were doing but she knew that it would involve many needles, cutting, stabbing, and the part she hated the most was the tubes.

Nariko was able to take everything else since her body was able to heal itself almost instantly after every cut, but could not stand those tubes. They would take these long tubes like hoses and stick them into the back of her neck to pump all sorts of chemicals and other things into her body.

Nariko hated the feeling it left in her. It always felt so strange and cold, and left her with this strange high energy sensation that felt unnatural and not right. This was the life she was created in and these people were her creators. This was what her life was like every day. Today, unknown to the poor Nariko would be different, however.

The scientists were doing the usual test that they would do any other day, but today they all acted different, like they were rushing through everything. They seemed excited about something, like a kid who had just heard a secret and were just bouncing off the walls, ready to tell someone.

After they had finished with the last test, they all gathered around her with very creepy grins on each of their faces while one held the horrible tubes she hated so much. Nariko still didn't move; she couldn't if she wanted to. She wasn't tied down or anything, but she couldn't move, because she never had.

"Well, hello, Nariko." The main and oldest scientist said to her, Nariko remembered the others calling him Junichiro. "How are you feeling?" He knew she couldn't answer her but, some of the scientist would still speak to her not like she was a person, but the way someone would talk to their pet , or even an inanimate object. "Today is a special day for you. You can tell that. Do you know why it's so special?" he asked again knowing she still could not speak.

"Today is the day all of our hard work finally comes to life." A second scientist proclaimed.

"The day we've been waiting years for now." The third scientist said as the others all nodded in response.

"Also, today is the day you finally get to get up from your table Nariko." Someone had whispered into her ear. This time it was the fifth and youngest scientist to speak. His name was Daisuke and he was different from the other scientist as Nariko noticed. It wasn't the way he acted or anything, but really the way he looked at her. He would always look at her like a prize or a priceless little doll, as if she was made for him to do with as he wanted.

He was the one that unsettled her the most. The thought however of finally being able to get off of this cold hard metal table, did peak her interest. She supposed it might have shown in her eyes somehow because Daisuke's small smile had turned into a full on grin.

He always seemed to be the one to notice any subtle change in her. Like when they would be inserting the tubes into her neck he would fake a subtle attempt at comforting her, all the while with that same chilling grin on his face. "Are you ready? It's going to be quite a ride." he said.

He turned to look at the other scientist and nodded at them. As two of them left to do something, Daisuke came and stood right next to Nariko and pick her up and holding her bridal style in his arms, as Junichiro began to insert the tubes into her neck.

Daisuke then walked her into another room that was completely black with something in the middle of the room started to glow a bright orange. Someone had closed the door behind them and was followed by someone in front of them lighting a row of candles. It was then that she saw it a large tank suspended in the middle of the room with a bright glowing liquid and a strange circle or writing on the ground.

Daisuke had walked Nariko towards the tank as all the other scientists stood in a line in front of them with a look of anticipation. Daisuke had slowly begun to drop her into the disgusting liquid and smiled as her face began to sink underneath. Nariko was starting to feel strange. It entered from the back of her neck again and felt it spread through the rest of her body.

As the feeling began to grow inside her, it seemed that the orange liquid that Nariko laid suspended in was reacting to it as well. The liquid started glowing brighter and brighter and Nariko's body began to jerk and spasm in response.

After a few minutes of this the liquid started to turn black while Nariko's now dark orange eyes started to glow, and after that, everything vanished.

First there was a loud crash, sounds of painful screams, loud roars that sound like it came from some sort of beast, and a dark laugh that sounded vaguely familiar. But what stood out most was the pain. It was Nariko's first experience with pain and it felt like it all came at her at once.

When Nariko had woken up from that strange state, she had surprisingly sat up all on her own for the first time. She had looked around her to see the building she had always been in completely destroyed and some of the familiar faces of the scientist and other people in pieces on the ground.

Nariko had stumbled to her feet, like a baby who was just learning how to walk. She walked a little and crawled some until she felt like she couldn't go any farther and passed out from the exhaustion.

After that day she had met the villagers for the first time, and even then they did nothing but stare at her with enraged eyes and chased her out of their town, and they have treated her like that ever since.

Nariko still had nightmares about those days, but no matter how bad it was, she never cried. Nariko had never cried once in her entire life. Whether it was back in the lab or one of the times the villagers came to torture and abuse her she never once shed a tear or fought back. She started to wonder why that was, but to think if maybe she had never felt the level of emotion a person would feel that would make them cry, or maybe she just didn't have it in her to cry.

Nariko began to stand up and proceeded to put out the fire. As she began to wake up the now sleeping Yuroichi, she noticed how late it was and began to think it was in her best interest to hurry on home, before any of the villagers came out to look for her. As she began to look around she began to hear the shouts of the villagers getting closer, followed by the light from their torches.

"Too late." She whispered to herself as she stood up with her eyes cast down to the ground getting ready for the torture that she knew was about come.


	3. Chapter 3

"I can't believe that goof made us late…" I grumbled, sitting on the dock with my legs swinging off the side. Naruto had made us late for our boat ride, so now we had to wait for the next available ride.

Kakashi-sensei said something about splitting up and we were all about to, until Yamato-sensei stopped us. "Wait. Let's go in partners. I don't want anyone getting lost, Kakashi." Kakashi shrugged, walking off with Yamato-sensei following.

"Yeah! Come on, Sakura! Let's go!" Naruto grabbed Sakura, leaving Sai, Kiba, Akamaru, Seimaru, and I alone. We all sweat dropped at his actions.

"Well, I have Akamaru. You guys can go off and find some more!" Kiba and Akamaru bounded off, leaving us to ourselves.

Seimaru barked at me, getting my attention. I nodded to him. "Yeah. You're right. He did that on purpose. Alright, Sai, it's just us, I guess." I turned to see the pale boy giving me another fake smile. I couldn't hold back the annoyance this time.

"Will you please stop smiling so fakely? It makes me feel like you aren't being genuine with me. I understand that you are trying to learn emotions again, but until you learn how to do so, maybe you shouldn't do that." He blinked at me, seemingly amaze. Like it was some huge deal that I'd said that.

"I apologize. I am still trying." His face dropped back to its usual blank state and we began to walk into the village.

"It's okay. I just can't stand it when I feel like someone is being false. And if being unemotional is really that much of a problem for you, I'll try to help out as much as I can, alright?"

He looked at me and I saw the corner of his mouth twitch, like he wanted to smile, but he couldn't. "Yes…thank you, Keimaki." I felt my face burn, but not from the usual irritation that I felt when someone called me by my full name. I was blushing. I liked it when Sai said my name. I had to be going insane!

"E-Er…you're welcome, Sai! Now, let's go find this info!" He nodded and we went around the town, asking about the village that was supposed to hold this "weapon".

Most people didn't know the village even existed, let alone knowing anything that happened around there. Two other countries separated us, so they weren't really close for anyone to know too much.

We met back up at the docks three hours later, having only half an hour left until the ferry was to arrive. We told Kakashi-sensei all that we had found and, soon enough, the ferry was boarding the dock beside us.

We'd only been riding for a few minutes, and Naruto was already hanging off of the side of the boat, green as could be. "See, Naruto! I told you that you shouldn't have eaten that miso soup! You knew we were going on a boat today!"

Sakura was scolding a hurling Naruto and everyone else was sitting here and there about the seats. We were the only occupants on the ferry at all. Yamato sensei was near the front of the boat, Kakashi sensei was sitting to my left, reading one of his books, Kiba was beside me with Akamaru at his ankles, Seimaru was at my feet, and Sai was a ways off, and looked to be drawing in a book. How could he draw with the boat rocking the way it was?

I got up and walked over. He had his back to me, so I tried to look over his shoulder to see what he was doing, but he snapped the book closed.

He turned another fake smile to me. "Yes? What can I help you with Keimaki?" I tried not to blush again, hearing him say my name.

"Err…I just wanted to see what you were doing. How are you able to draw with the boat moving like it is?" I frowned at his shrug and sighed. I could tell he didn't want to talk, so I got up to leave.

"You…you don't have to leave." He said before I could walk away. I blinked, turning to look at him. His face held no expression, but I could see a hint of emotion in his eyes. Maybe he could feel emotion. He was just afraid to show it.

I smiled and sat back down. He turned towards me, trying to strike up a conversation. Seimaru trotted over, lying at my feet again. He seemed irritable, but I just put it off as him not liking being on the boat.

We finally made it to the small island of Bakekuro. It was early morning and just starting to rain heavily. It was a rural part of the Lightning country, styled from times that most people didn't even remember. But, if the suspicions were correct, they were harboring something even more tragic than just an outdated décor.

Naruto began to kiss the ground, getting strange looks from the fisherman around our dock. I rolled my eyes and picked him up by his collar. "Naruto, you are fifteen. Act like it!"

He pouted at me. "And? You're seventeen and you act like a three year old sometimes!" I got a tick mark on my head and chunked him into the water.

"I do NOT, you stupid brat!" He came back up, choking on a bit of water. He glared at me and jumped back onto the docks.

"You could've killed me, Kei!" I rolled my eyes, hopping up on Seimaru.

"Please. Like "The Great Ninja Naruto" could die? Losing faith over a little water, Naruto?" He blushed from embarrassment and just glared at me.

"Alright, enough. Let's go find the hotel to stay in for tonight!" Yamato-sensei yelled over the now pouring rain. We ran and found an Inn instantly.

"Alright. So, that's three rooms?" The keeper asked, smiling at us. We nodded and gave her the money. Sakura and I were sharing a room, Kakashi and Yamato were sharing, and the rest of the boys were bunking up, too.

"Alright. Be up at dawn. We start our searching then!" Kakashi went up to his room, Yamato going off to do God knows what.

"Let's go to the baths, Kei. I really need one after all that rain!" I nodded, following Sakura.

"Seimaru, you go with the guys for now. I'll call you when it's safe, okay?" He nodded to me and followed Kiba up to his room. In he end, Sakura ended up going off to the baths by herself and I decided to take a shower in the room.

I called Seimaru back a while ago, but he decided to stay with Kiba for now. I took a quick shower, wrapped a towel around me, and walked back into the main room from the attached bathroom.

I heard a knock on the door and, without thinking, went to open it up. Sai stood before me, arm rose to knock again. I'd never seen the pale boy turn so red. His face was contorting in a mixture of emotion, none really catching on, though.

"Uh…um…I was c-coming to tell you that Kiba was asking if he could borrow your shampoo, b-but…uh…" I blushed, but sweat dropped.

"Why didn't he just come ask me himself? Hold on. I'll get it. I moved from the open door and went to the bathroom, grabbing my shampoo. Why did my brother have to be so weird?

"Here. Sorry. It's a little damp since I just used it." Sai's face stayed a vivid red as he took the container and only intensified whenever our fingers brushed.

"It's…it's alright. Um…" His eyes trailed down, causing him to blush again.

"What? You've never see a girl in a towel before? At least I know you're not a pervert then…you really are embarrassed, though."

He then looked confused. "Embarrassed? What is that?" I laughed. He looked like a little kid, all confused like.

"It's the uncomfortable feeling that you have right now. You see me in a towel, so you get embarrassed and feel awkward. Am I right?" He blinked and nodded slowly.

"Yes…but there is something else, Keimaki. I feel…weird. I feel as though my skin is burning and…" I blushed heavily as he reached out to me, his fingers brushing my arm.

They trailed up it, barely brushing, and finding their way to my shoulder. His fingers barely brushed the edge of my towel, when a low growl was suddenly heard. Seimaru stood in the doorway, growling at the scene.

Sai snapped out of it, seeing what he was doing, and blushed heavily. "I…I'm sorry!" He ran from the room, almost slamming the door behind me.

My face burned harder than it ever had before. Yes, Sai had felt embarrassed, but he had felt something else. I knew well what he felt, because I was feeling it, too. It was strange. It was something that I hadn't felt since Riku. It was desire.

Seimaru looked up at me, the anger still apparent in his eyes. "Why didn't you stop him?! What the hell were you doing?!" I blinked, looking at him.

"I…u-uh…" I didn't know what to say. I couldn't say, because even I didn't know the answer. "I don't know. Um…yeah. I'm getting dressed now." I walked to my bed changed into my clothes, which consisted of one of Riku's old shirts and some sleep shorts.

Sakura came in a little after and passed out on the bed. I hopped into my own and snuggled into the sheets, thinking about what had happened between Sai and I.

What had happened exactly? Why had I wanted something to happen? And why was Seimaru so angry with me? I glanced down at the foot of the bed. Seimaru wouldn't come up to sleep with me and he kept his back to me. I sighed, but shrugged it off and fell asleep, waiting for tomorrow.

Seimaru sighed when he heard my breathing soften and knew that I was finally asleep. He crawled up to be beside me and nuzzled his nose onto my cheek. I smiled in my sleep and snuggled into my pillow.

"You silly girl…what were you thinking? Why…why did I have to die and leave you here all alone?" He sighed and laid his head next to mine. "I still love you, Keimaki…" Soon, he was asleep, too.

I woke to a loud clasp of thunder. I was sweating a bit from fear, but Seimaru's head in my lap calmed me down. I smiled down at him, glad that he wasn't mad at me anymore.

It looked to be about midnight, but when I looked at the clock, it read 5:45 in the morning. So, knowing that we had to get up, I woke Sakura.

It was still pouring outside. I had a feeling that the sun would not shine at all today, and that it would continue to storm. This was the lightning country after all.


	4. Chapter 4

Nariko was lying sprawled out on the grass. Making sure not to move an inch and made sure not to make a single sound. The villagers, who came to take out their daily revenge on her, had just left a few minutes ago once a new thunderstorm had broken out. She waited until she was sure they were about to the village before she allowed herself a big sigh of relief. She began to think that such a huge breath was a bad idea as the knife still left in her stomach had made its presents known.

Nariko grabbed the handle with a steady grip, and held in a deep breath before pulling it out swiftly. She continued to lie there for another moment looking up at the storm clouds letting the raindrops hit her bruises as the smaller ones slowly began to heal themselves. The larger ones along with the deep gashes in her skin would take longer to regenerate.

Suddenly Nariko heard the soft meow of her little orange friend, Yuroichi as he emerged from the nearby bushes. Luckily, Yuroichi had managed to hide away before the village mob had gotten to her. There would be no telling what they would do, if they found him with her, but Nariko had an idea it would mean the end for Yuroichi, and she didn't think she could handle that. Yuroichi made his way to Nariko's face and began to rub his head against hers. Nariko looked out the corner of her eyes to see Yuroichi's sad little face looking at her worriedly.

"It's okay Yuroichi. I'm fine now really." Nariko whispered out and forced herself to give him a small assuring smile. Attacks like these were actually a common thing, and would tend to increase during this time of year, as it got closer to her birthday.

Nariko forced herself to sit up right, then finally up to her feet to stand. When she finally made it up, she looked down at the clothes she was wearing. The large black T-shirt she was wearing had got torn up somewhat and slightly singed but possibly still okay. Her dark blue pants, obviously intended for a man, had gotten torn to shreds at the pant legs. Nariko had gotten out her kunai, which she had found left at a training field, and started to cut off the badly damaged fabric up to her mid-thigh. Once Nariko saw her pants with the bottom half gone, she thought that they actually didn't look too bad.

She had smiled and looked over to Yuroichi and said "Well, at least I got a pair of Capri's out of that. Right Yuroichi?". Nariko then began to smile and model the new shorts for Yuroichi for a moment before the pain in her stomach started stinging again.

'This is so strange. None of the other injuries I've gotten have never hurt this bad before.' Nariko thought. It was true that this was definitely not her first cut, and it wasn't even one of the worse ones she had gotten, but the throbbing almost seem to increase a little more with each passing moment.

Nariko had then lifted up her shirt revealing the stab wound right under her rib cage, along with her otherwise flawless skin. That was one of the things about her, which never seemed to make sense. Even with the constant abuse and lack of food, her body never changed. She would spend most of the time in the hot sun, yet she was still fair-skinned. She never lost or gained any weight and she never gotten any scars or bruises left on her skin. The only scar left on her body was the one on the back of her neck from those tubes.

The area from the stab wound seemed like it hadn't healed at all. Usually wounds this size would have healed up by now, but the site didn't look like it had started closing up. Nariko had just started expecting the wound in more detail when she heard a loud roar in the distance. It was the mama bear. She was in trouble.

Nariko looked over to Yuroichi who had heard it too and had begun to let out a low growl. Yuroichi's hair had begun to stand on its ends, which only happened when he was getting ready to use his supply of chakra. In an instant, the small Yuroichi had transformed into a large tiger. Nariko took no time to figure out Yuroichi plan as she hurriedly tore off a piece of her shirt, made a makeshift bandage, and tied it around her abdomen to stop the bleeding. Once she finished that, she nodded to the transformed Yuroichi telling him she was ready. She hopped on his back and the duo was off. Hoping they were not too late.

The team all gathered together in the lobby of the hotel waiting for Kakashi and Yamato to arrive, but they never did.

"Where in the world is Kakashi and Yamato sensei? They're almost an hour late. What could be taking them so long? Kei said pacing around not happy that their two sensei's were late.

"Kakashi sensei is always late. I wouldn't be surprised if he was the reason Yamato sensei isn't here either." Sakura said still trying to wake herself up some. Sai who had disappeared earlier without anyone noticing had suddenly returned to the group with a scroll in his hand.

Naruto was the first to notice it and spoke up. "Hey Sai what's that scroll you got there?"

Sai held the scroll out and looked at it for a moment before he spoke. "The lady at the front desk just gave it to me. She said it was a note for us from Yamato sensei." He said as everyone gathered around him so they could see it too.

The note read:

Dear gang, Kakashi sensei and I have gone out to do some more extensive investigating of our own for our mission. So while we are gone we are leaving you all in charge to dig up some information, and try to find whatever information you can concerning the weapon. We plan to be back by tonight so try and put in some work until then. Don't let us find out that you've spent this valuable time slacking off or there will be serious consequences for all of you. Good luck

-Yamato Sensei

"Is it just me or did it seem like Yamato sensei was giving us that cold creepy stare of his through the note?" Naruto asked everyone else as he tried to fight off the feeling.

"W-What are you t-talking about Naruto don't be ridiculous. No one can send a scary look through a piece of a paper. That's impossible" Kei said slightly shuttering as she had felt the same thing too. The entire group had then started imagining the same terrifying look of Yamato sensei as they all started shaking their heads in unison and ran out to get to work and fast.

"I don't get it. How does Kakashi and Yamato sensei expect us to gather information in the middle of a lightning storm this bad?" Kiba asked from his somewhat dry place from under a large tree while sitting on top of Akamaru who was also trying to keep dry.

All of them knew that since they were going into lightning country that they would probably be facing a lot of bad weather, and brought their raincoats. They didn't seem like they were doing much good in this weather though.

"I don't know. All the villagers are shut away inside, and won't come out for us to ask them any questions." Sakura said from her place under another nearby tree.

"Not to mention that with all this rain our vision is gonna be really bad, and any scents have probably been washed away by now too." Kei said standing under another tree next to Sai until Seimaru forced himself in between the two while sending a glare over at Sai every so often.

"Hey guys over her! I think I found something !" shouted Naruto from inside a nearby cave.

Everyone had run over to the mouth of the cave to see what Naruto could have possibly found. They all looked inside of the cave but saw no Naruto.

"Hey Naruto, what did you find? " Kiba said in a low quiet voice. He leaned his ear closer in, but still nothing. He turned to everyone else and shook his head.

Kei was the next one to step up and seemed to have gotten a little frustrated. "Hey Naruto are you in there?" she yelled down the tunnel and then listened for a response. This time they got their reply.

Yeah I'm in here! I thought I heard a noise in here so I'm checking it out!" Naruto yelled back.

"Are you stupid or something?! You aren't supposed to just run off investigating strange noises. There could be a wild animal in there!" Sakura yelled out angrily.

"What did you say Sakura? I can't hear you!" Naruto yelled back as he managed to make it the back of the cave. That was when Naruto came face to face with the mystery animal making the strange noise.

"I said that there could be a-"

"BEAR!" Naruto said as he ran past his team with a huge bear right on his tail.

Everyone else immediately jumped out of the way of the enraged bear as it continued to chase down Naruto. They all looked onto the sad display from some of the treetops up above. Sakura was looking on the situation rather annoyingly. Sai only gave his normal impassive look, while Kiba was laughing his butt off the entire time. Kei could only look on in worry and slight anger that her brother could be laughing at such a serious situation such as this.

"Kiba don't just sit there laughing. We've got to do something!" Kei yelled at her brother who was on the verge of tears.

"What? What do you want me to do? Naruto's obviously got the situation under control." Kiba said with a smirk while looking at his poor friend down on the ground running for his life.

Naruto had a small lead on the bear but it was closing fast. Naruto kept trying to use his shadow clone jutsu to help take down the bear but kept getting bit and scratched in the butt whenever he slowed down to do the hand signs.

"Hey a little help down here would be nice!" Naruto screamed while once again getting bit in the butt. Kei gave another glare at her brother, which finally told him it was time to stop laughing and get to work.

"Fine. Fine. Come on Akamaru time to save an idiot in distress." Kiba muttered looking a little annoyed that now he'd been pulled into Naruto's mess.

Kiba and Akamaru jumped out the tree followed by Kei and Seimaru. Akamaru and Seimaru had immediately went on the defensive as Kiba and Kei tried to get up close enough to distract the bear from trying to eat or kill Naruto. Just when they had managed to distract the bear long enough for Naruto to slip away, a large orange blur came flying at Akamaru.

Nariko and Yuroichi had stopped a little ways away from the mama's bear den. They knew it wasn't a bright idea to get too close to a mama bear and her cubs without letting her give you the okay. They looked from the treetops they were in to see a group of people who seemed to be attacking the mama bear.

Nariko noticed that they couldn't have come from the village, but then happened to notice the two large dogs who looked to be trying to hold off the mama bear. Nariko got a little worried when she saw that.

She turned to look at Yuroichi who had noticed them too and had started to let out a more threatening growl. Yuroichi hated dogs. She didn't know if it was just a feline thing or if he had a bad experience with one. All she knew was that Yuroichi would never go around them and occasionally end up in a fight with one. Before she could say anything to try to calm him down, he had already jumped out of their hiding spot and started attacking the first one he saw.

Nariko stopped herself from jumping out on instinct after the transformed Yuroichi. If they both started fighting carelessly against these new strangers, they'd both probably be defeated in minutes. Nariko looked over at her companion worriedly from her hiding spot and watched how the scene was playing out.

Yuroichi had latched onto the big tan dog's throat and had him pinned down to the ground before the second one came and flung itself at him. Yuroichi thankfully saw him coming and dodge him at the last second causing the two dogs to fall onto each other. The two dogs now looked a little irritated at Yuroichi and tried to attack together this time with one attacking from below and the other coming from above, but Yuroichi was still one step ahead of them. Yuroichi had used his amazing speed to slip through the ground attack and then proceeded to jump in the air and ground the dog coming from above with a scratch to the face, causing him to crash into his fellow canine partner.

As the two tried to stand, a brown, spiky haired boy and a girl that looked quite similar to him had jumped into the way to defend them both. In that moment, Nariko had noticed every single detail in this boy's profile. He was tall, lean, and muscular and tan skinned. He also had two red fang marks on his face and a very serious look in his eyes. Nariko had never seen a look like that before. She had only seen the looks of the enraged villagers, but this look on this boy's face and on the girl next to him was completely new to her. What was that look? Was It-

"Cherishing?" Nariko whispered out when all of a sudden she felt a sharp blade pointed at her throat.

"Don't move." Came a low voice from behind her. Nariko tried to use her peripheral vision to see the person behind her that had managed to sneak up behind her and saw that he was a boy probably not much older than she was with long brown hair and very strange looking eyes.

Nariko then looked back down on the ground to see that some other people had joined in on the fight down below as well. A girl, who looked almost identical to the boy standing behind her, had jumped into the fight trying to be of aid to the slightly injured dogs, while a pink haired girl seemed to be doing the same with the poor unfortunate blonde boy who had gotten on the mama bears bad side. A pale looking boy along with some ink like monsters had cornered the mama bear, and Yuroichi was beginning to have a tough time with his fight, which was now four against one. Nariko could also feel the stab wound in her stomach started to hurt again as well. Nariko didn't know what to do. That wasn't true. She knew what she had to do now, but was a little worried about trying it, but another look around at the scene told her she had no other choice.

Nariko closed her eyes and took four deep breaths. With the first breath, she let go of all the fear in her body. When she let out the second breath, a surge of chakra began to run wild through her body and which the boy behind her apparently felt too. As she let out the third one, her long blonde hair had started turning until her whole head was dark grey.

"Hey what are you doing? Stop that!" the cautious boy behind her yelled out with authority as he was forced a couple steps back.

Nariko didn't pay his words any attention as she continued her breathing. As she let out her fourth and final breath, all her nerve senses diminished. She could feel no pain. She felt every distraction clear her mind. All that was left was the task at hand. As she turned around to her opponent, she met his gaze with bright yellow eyes. She brought her hands together and used her jutsu from the river to cause purple chakra spikes to appear on all section of the battlefields allowing the mama bear and Yuroichi to escape. This fight wasn't over yet. It was just beginning.


	5. Chapter 5

I sent a worried glance to the dazed dogs behind me. "Are you guys okay?!" They didn't look too banged up, so I figured they'd just hit their heads.

When I turned back around, I saw a flurry of purple chakara, and, suddenly, these dark, jagged spikes exploded from the ground in every which direction.

We jumped off the ground, grabbing Akamaru and Seimaru, and into some near by trees to avoid being skewered. The bear retreated back into its cave, but the orange tiger was still trying to fight us.

A girl with long, dark, gray hair, and torn up clothing, stepped out from the bushes. We jumped back down and Neji and Hinata landed beside us.

I gave them a funny look. "What are you guys doing here?" Neji nodded to the girl as he spoke again.

"Lady Tsunade thought that we may be of some help on your mission, but right now, we need to focus on that girl. She is wounded on her abdomen. Maybe we can use that to our advantage."

I felt worry for the girl in the pit of my stomach, but pushed it aside. She just tried to kill us, so we have no other option, but to fight her.

"Do you guys think that she knows about the weapon we've been looking for?" Sakura murmured to our group, pulling a kunai out and getting into a fighting stance.

"It's seven on two. Even without Akamaru and Seimaru, we can still beat them. Then, we'll find out what she knows!" Kiba growled, glancing back at his furry companion.

Seeing the girls yellow eyes flash dangerously, I took my own stance, a couple of shuriken between each of my knuckles.

"Guys, I don't think we have to look for the weapon anymore." I bit my lip. Could we handle this? We really needed our senseis' right about now.

"What do you mean, Kei? Of course, we do! That's our mission!" Naruto literally screamed out. Why hadn't this girl done anything yet?

"I think what Kei means to say is…this girl IS the weapon." Sai said for me. I nodded at him, and turned back to the girl. Everyone stood on their guard. If this is the supposed weapon of the Lightening Country, then it was our job to destroy it.

I felt somewhat sad as I stared at the girl. She looked to be about the age of 14. She was a child, but, to all opposing countries, she was a threat. And threats had to be eliminated.

Naruto, being the spunky kid he is, jumped at her first. The tiger that was standing in front of the girl jumped in to intercept Naruto's attempt at hurting her. With the tiger distracted, the rest of us sprang into action.

Sai started painting a lion to help keep the tiger busy, while Neji and Hinata activated their Byakugan and started to evaluate the girl.

I could see Neji started to sweat a bit. "What is it, Neji? What do you see?" He grit his teeth together.

"This girl…her chakara levels are off the chart! I…How can such a small girl hold so much chakara?!" Purple wisps flew from the girl again as she ran to protect the tiger.

She hit Naruto and knocked him into a tree. He was out instantly. The lion that Sai had painted to fight the lion had done its deed, though. The tiger was down on the ground, too tired to move.

The girl destroyed Sai's jutsu and turned a fierce glare to us. It looked so…unnatural on her young face. I still wasn't able to wrap my head around this girl being the weapon.

She ran at me and, just before she could hit me, she froze. Her eyes we dilated, and she looked pale. She collapsed into my arms. I blinked and looked to she blood slowly dripping down my arm.

The sudden urge I felt to help this girl was unimaginable. I fell to my knees and held her close, making sure to put pressure on the laceration on her abdomen.

I watched as the gray hair faded into a light blonde. Her eyes were closed now, but I was sure that they had changed, too. It now looked like I was holding a young child in my arms.

"Sakura! Quick! Come heal her!" Sakura looked hesitant. My brother put his hand on my shoulder.

"Kei, you have to let her go. This was our mission remember? We're supposed to destroy the weapon."

"What if I'm wrong?! What if she's not? What if she was just trying to protect her friend? We'd be killing an innocent person! Sakura!" The pink haired girl sighed at my exasperated look and knelt down in front of us.

"Kakashi-sensei and Yamoto-sensei aren't gonna like this…" She mumbled as she held her hand above the open flesh. We could see the wound start to mend before our eyes. Sakura hadn't even touched it yet.

"Whoa…she…she's healing! Sakura…are you healing her with your mind?!" Naruto exclaimed in awe. We all gave him a dull look and Sakura hit him up side the head.

"No, you dummy! She's healing on her own!" Naruto rubbed the lump on his head as we all watched the girl in amazement.

"Why don't we take her back to our Inn? We need to ask her some questions. We can use chakara cuffs to make sure that she doesn't get out…" Sai suggested and we all nodded.

I picked her up and set her on Seimaru who was now awake, along with Akamaru. Seimaru barked at me and nodded to the small, orange cat that was once the tiger.

"You're right, Seimaru. Let's bring him, too." Hinata picked up the small animal and cuddled it to her chest. We headed out for the Inn, now thankful that we had the cover of the thunderstorm.


End file.
